Helen Stenborg Has Passed Away At Age 86

Helen Stenborg, 86, a Tony-nominated stage, film and TV actress who was the wife of the late Tony Award-winning actor Barnard Hughes and mother of the Tony Award-winning director Doug Hughes, died Tuesday at her Manhattan apartment, according to press agent Chris Boneau. The cause was not given.

Stenborg is known to soap opera fans for her role as Helga Lindeman on ANOTHER WORLD from January 1977 to February 1978. Helga was the Cory housekeeper and a reluctant participant in several of Sven Peterson's schemes over the years. She also appeared on RYAN'S HOPE and ONE LIFE TO LIVE.

Stenborg earned a Tony nomination for her 1999 role as pyromaniac Sarita Myrtle in Noel Coward's "Waiting in the Wings." She and her husband celebrated their 50th anniversary onstage in the Coward play and were honored with Drama Desk Awards for Lifetime Achievement in 2000. He died in 2006.

Stenborg's last Broadway performance was in 2002 in Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" with Liam Neeson and Laura Linney. Other Broadway appearances included the 1995 production of "A Month in the Country" and Hugh Leonard's "A Life" in 1980-81.

She was a longtime member of New York's Circle Repertory Company, appearing in the original productions of Lanford Wilson's "The Hot L Baltimore" and "Talley and Son," for which she won an Obie Award in 1986.

Her film credits include the Academy Award-winning short My Mother Dreams the Satan's Disciples in New York, and small parts in Three Days of the Condor, Doubt and other movies.

She toured with her husband in the national company of Hugh Leonard's Tony-Award winning "Da," the play for which Hughes won the 1978 Tony for Best Actor.

Stenborg was born Jan. 24, 1925, in Minneapolis and moved to New York as a teenager to become an actress.

1 comment:

I very much loved Helen Stenborg as Helga on Another World in 1978. I also was lucky to see her in NYC in 1999 as Sarita in Waiting In The Wings opposite her hubby Barnard Hughes & the show's above-the-title stars Lauren Bacall & Rosemary Harris. RIP & Cheers, Helen--Bless You! :-)